Latest / North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast / Moisés Ballesteros is coming to Wrigley Field

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Moisés Ballesteros is coming to Wrigley Field · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Network's Cubs podcast. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. Big news
0:17
Speaker 1: last night the Cubs win against Miami and then after
0:22
Speaker 1: the game we learn that Moys's Biasteros is getting the call.
0:27
Speaker 1: He is getting called up to the big leagues. Uh, cap,
0:31
Speaker 1: left handed hitter, he's going to d h most of
0:35
Speaker 1: the time. You know, we've known he's not you know,
0:38
Speaker 1: a stud behind the plate just yet. He can he
0:40
Speaker 1: can handle it, but it doesn't sound like that's that's
0:43
Speaker 1: going to be what he's going to be doing while.
0:47
Speaker 2: With the Cubs.
0:48
Speaker 1: We don't really know how long he's going to be up,
0:50
Speaker 1: but this is exciting news. He's hitting the cover off
0:53
Speaker 1: the ball and it's it's fun for fans to get
0:57
Speaker 1: a cookie.
0:57
Speaker 2: As THEO would say, I mean, this is a guy
1:01
Speaker 2: you you know this.
1:02
Speaker 3: We've heard the Cubs talk about this guy as someone
1:06
Speaker 3: who's close to a no doubt hitter, right like, you know,
1:12
Speaker 3: there's gonna be a learning curve. We're not gonna say
1:14
Speaker 3: he's gonna you know, hit three home runs in his
1:17
Speaker 3: debut and never go back to Iowa. But you look
1:21
Speaker 3: at his age, how young he is, how well he's
1:24
Speaker 3: performed consistently at every level against you know, older, more
1:28
Speaker 3: experienced competition. Like it's pretty rarefied air where he's kind
1:34
Speaker 3: of gone thus far, and you know there, I don't
1:38
Speaker 3: think we'll see him much at catcher, if at all,
1:41
Speaker 3: during this stint. I think there are real questions about
1:45
Speaker 3: whether or not he'd stay behind the plate. But as
1:48
Speaker 3: Council basically alluded to in spring training, like if he
1:52
Speaker 3: was a no doubt catcher, he'd be like the number
1:54
Speaker 3: one prospect in the entire game. Yeah, those guys are
1:57
Speaker 3: so hard to find. My stairs is not that defensively,
2:00
Speaker 3: but you know we saw in twenty sixteen when a
2:04
Speaker 3: third catcher in Wilson Contrere's comes up and can move
2:08
Speaker 3: around a bit, can provide some thump in the lineup
2:12
Speaker 3: and some energy, and it'll be it'll be a fun
2:17
Speaker 3: atmosphere at Wriggly to get him. You know, he'll have
2:19
Speaker 3: a nice soft landing spot against the Marlins. He'll get
2:22
Speaker 3: to see a Cubs Socks Crosstown weekend series at Wrigley Field,
2:27
Speaker 3: it'll definitely be fun to watch.
2:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously Ian happ going to the IL is an ideal.
2:34
Speaker 1: It's an oblique injury that he suffered. I believe he
2:37
Speaker 1: felt it on a swing in New York on Friday,
2:40
Speaker 1: and now he's missed three games straight. He was supposed
2:42
Speaker 1: to work do some work on Monday. I this is
2:47
Speaker 1: I think we'll learn more today when we get to
2:49
Speaker 1: the ballpark how severe this is. I had heard that
2:53
Speaker 1: the work the workout went well, but you know, we
2:57
Speaker 1: never know. You never know how things, how things really go,
3:01
Speaker 1: And like what what that actually means?
3:03
Speaker 2: Obleaques are fickle.
3:04
Speaker 1: You don't want to if if it is a best
3:07
Speaker 1: case scenario as far as an i Elston goes, then
3:13
Speaker 1: then what you just want to be cautious. I think
3:16
Speaker 1: it makes sense if he was feeling anything, if it
3:19
Speaker 1: was even like no, it's not completely gone, then why
3:22
Speaker 1: why risk it. This guy's moistes by his tirs. He's
3:26
Speaker 1: ready to hit in the big leagues. There's not much
3:30
Speaker 1: of a challenge left for him at Triple A. Offensively,
3:33
Speaker 1: he's slashing three sixty eight four two. He strikes out
3:38
Speaker 1: ten seven percent of the time. Like, what's the what's
3:42
Speaker 1: he doing in triple A that you know what? Offensively
3:46
Speaker 1: that really he needs to figure out. There's not much
3:49
Speaker 1: that he needs to prove against triple A pitching, So
3:55
Speaker 1: all the more reason to call him up. If you
3:59
Speaker 1: you have this opportunity, see what he can do, See
4:02
Speaker 1: what type of impact he can make. If it's a
4:04
Speaker 1: short stint, if he's not staying up here permanently, I
4:07
Speaker 1: think that's okay. It's not the end of the world.
4:09
Speaker 1: Fans will probably want him to stay up permanently, that's it.
4:13
Speaker 1: But if he if he rakes, maybe you just maybe
4:16
Speaker 1: you keep this third catcher type situation and you rotate
4:19
Speaker 1: d H. You rotate him in as catcher every once
4:23
Speaker 1: in a while. I think it could be it could
4:27
Speaker 1: be really interesting because they could certainly use you can
4:31
Speaker 1: always use more depth offensively. I guess we don't know
4:36
Speaker 1: what the corresponding move is. There's going to have to
4:39
Speaker 1: be a forty man move. We'll see what that is.
4:42
Speaker 1: But I will say this, Patrick, I like how they're
4:46
Speaker 1: doing this in the sense that you could have called
4:50
Speaker 1: up Kevin Alcantra, you could have called up Owen Casey.
4:52
Speaker 1: Neither of them are doing that great I think Casey
4:55
Speaker 1: Casey is hitting for a ton of power. But if
4:58
Speaker 1: i'm if I remember last time I saw, he's striking
5:01
Speaker 1: out at an unreasonable rate right now thirty five point
5:05
Speaker 1: seven percent. That's not going to work right now. He
5:09
Speaker 1: needs to continue to work on that. Al Contra is
5:10
Speaker 1: struggling with breaking balls. From what I've heard, you could
5:15
Speaker 1: have just called one of them up, though, if you
5:17
Speaker 1: just you know, forty man, don't want to.
5:19
Speaker 2: I don't want to make a move.
5:20
Speaker 1: This is a This is a move that a team
5:22
Speaker 1: that's winning, that's trying to continue to win, that's looking
5:25
Speaker 1: for the most impactful addition for this eyel stint, they're
5:31
Speaker 1: making that move.
5:32
Speaker 2: I like that.
5:33
Speaker 1: It's they're not overthinking things and saying, well, let's just
5:35
Speaker 1: go with the guy that's on the forty man.
5:39
Speaker 3: Biostereos certainly earned this opportunity. This is also a reflection
5:43
Speaker 3: of how much Justin Turner has struggled in this part
5:48
Speaker 3: time role. I think he doesn't have an extra base
5:53
Speaker 3: hit yet in seventy plate appearances, which is hard to
5:56
Speaker 3: believe for a guy who's as accomplished as he is.
6:01
Speaker 3: I think we do take Ian Happ for granted, to
6:04
Speaker 3: an extent. I mean, this is a guy who just
6:05
Speaker 3: posts day after day after day and winds up with
6:09
Speaker 3: like the same numbers, uh, virtually every year. It's interesting
6:16
Speaker 3: to see peekro Armstrong at the top of the lineup.
6:19
Speaker 2: I don't think that's like a permanent thing.
6:22
Speaker 3: Uh. You know, Ian Hap whenever he cut returns seems
6:25
Speaker 3: to be counsels, uh, leadoff guy. But there are a
6:30
Speaker 3: lot of kind of forces at work here when you
6:33
Speaker 3: see this pipeline the Cubs have developed in Latin Latin
6:40
Speaker 3: America kind of has had some slower, slower moments in
6:47
Speaker 3: terms of that pipeline, how how it's been moving. But
6:49
Speaker 3: now you have you know, Miguel Amaya as a really
6:55
Speaker 3: solid two way catcher who's getting big hits and you know,
7:01
Speaker 3: really continuing to maintain the trust of the entire pitching
7:07
Speaker 3: staff and coaching staff. Carson Kelly has been on this
7:14
Speaker 3: you know, amazing run which you had detailed in the Athletic,
7:18
Speaker 3: all these different changes and experiences over the years, uh
7:21
Speaker 3: coming together and you know it's it seems like only
7:26
Speaker 3: a couple of days ago, so hot. I we were
7:27
Speaker 3: talking about another big major league debut, and here comes
7:31
Speaker 3: another one this time at the friendly confience.
7:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's uh, let's touch on Kate Horton in a bit. Uh.
7:38
Speaker 1: I was gonna throw us to a break, but I'm
7:40
Speaker 1: going to have to wait because the.
7:42
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7:45
Speaker 1: Uh, but I want to I just wanted to quickly
7:48
Speaker 1: give give love you. You talked about the catchers I
7:50
Speaker 1: want to quickly give love to them because uh Amaya
7:54
Speaker 1: had three hits last night, which was Monday night.
7:58
Speaker 2: He's them.
8:00
Speaker 1: It's just a shocking turnaround almost how impressive catching has
8:05
Speaker 1: been for this team. You know, Carson Kelly's been a
8:10
Speaker 1: revelation obviously, but Miguel Amaya is going overlook Ian happ
8:14
Speaker 1: gets overlooked. Miguel Amaya does too, because Carson Kelly has
8:18
Speaker 1: been so awesome. But Miguel Amaya has been really steady
8:21
Speaker 1: behind the plate. I think he deserves a lot of credit.
8:24
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break and then we'll get to
8:26
Speaker 1: the Caate Horton debut over the weekend.
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9:30
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick kid Horton made his debut in New
9:34
Speaker 1: York against a really good Mets team.
9:38
Speaker 2: He did.
9:39
Speaker 1: He had Brad Keller as the opener, so he didn't
9:42
Speaker 1: technically start the game, but through four innings, gave up
9:46
Speaker 1: three runs on a homer to Brett Baty, but otherwise,
9:51
Speaker 1: I mean, he really nice fastball. The sweeper hung a few,
9:56
Speaker 1: but it was you know, you can see the talent.
10:00
Speaker 1: You could see the potential for a ton of swing
10:03
Speaker 1: and miss uh.
10:05
Speaker 2: I think it.
10:06
Speaker 1: From watching the interviews, it seems like everyone is talking
10:11
Speaker 1: about how he's got this bulldog mentality, how tough he
10:16
Speaker 1: is on the mound. We heard that they really I
10:19
Speaker 1: think the pitchers really respected him the way he goes
10:23
Speaker 1: about business in spring training, and guys were excited that
10:28
Speaker 1: he was coming up and making his debut.
10:31
Speaker 2: I think it is exciting. I think it's a.
10:34
Speaker 1: I don't know if I if I'm right on this,
10:37
Speaker 1: I'm but it feels like the biggest, the most the
10:40
Speaker 1: most hyped prospect the Cup pitching prospect the Cubs have
10:43
Speaker 1: had since Mark Pryor, not Mark Pryor level. Mark Pryor
10:46
Speaker 1: was the biggest pitching prospect in the game at the time,
10:51
Speaker 1: and and this is this is not to that level,
10:54
Speaker 1: but it is certainly an impactful one as far as
11:00
Speaker 1: the Cubs go.
11:03
Speaker 3: You're right, Prior was sort of a ready made prospect.
11:07
Speaker 3: I mean, it was just under a year from his
11:09
Speaker 3: draft day to his major league debut. Horton took a
11:13
Speaker 3: little longer. We wrote about this in The Athletic. That
11:19
Speaker 3: was really interesting how the Cubs, through the course of
11:23
Speaker 3: your reporting revealed like some of the the brain trust
11:27
Speaker 3: they had on this of just why did his velocity
11:30
Speaker 3: dip last year? Where's his arm angle at? How do
11:33
Speaker 3: they keep this guy healthy? How do you kind of
11:36
Speaker 3: monitor his workload? It won't be a hard cap on
11:42
Speaker 3: the innings. I'd also recommend our team at The Athletic.
11:47
Speaker 3: Tyler Kepner wrote a fantastic, you know, live game story
11:51
Speaker 3: off Horton's debut in New York. As you pointed out,
11:54
Speaker 3: there was a good Turk Wendel reference thrown in there
11:59
Speaker 3: of hot being over the line, a guy who had
12:02
Speaker 3: pitched for the Cubs and the Mets, and you know,
12:06
Speaker 3: Justin Steele has been a homegrown All Star pitcher. Jeffsonmargo
12:12
Speaker 3: was a homegrown All Star pitcher who had a lot
12:16
Speaker 3: of hype, but it wasn't so much as he was
12:19
Speaker 3: like a pitch He was just kind of fast tracked
12:21
Speaker 3: to the big leagues and had to figure it out eventually,
12:24
Speaker 3: and certainly made the right decision and turning down the
12:27
Speaker 3: NFL out of Notre Dame. But yeah, it's been a
12:31
Speaker 3: long time since the Cubs have had pitching talent like this,
12:36
Speaker 3: and we'll see how Biastero's does. But it feels like
12:41
Speaker 3: when we talked in the offseason, when we talked to
12:44
Speaker 3: people in Arizona during spring training, like the best version
12:48
Speaker 3: of this Cubs team, or really like any playoff contending
12:52
Speaker 3: team is one that gets surprises, that gets young players
12:56
Speaker 3: who come up and contribute, and I think that that is.
13:00
Speaker 3: You know, we're only in the middle of May. Now,
13:03
Speaker 3: there's still a long way to go, but already you're
13:06
Speaker 3: seeing these guys come up, being put into big situations
13:12
Speaker 3: and even rolling with what has not been you know,
13:16
Speaker 3: an absolute best case starts so far. I mean, just
13:19
Speaker 3: look at Matchawe being back in Iowa. But it gives
13:24
Speaker 3: a lot of I think a lot of confidence for
13:27
Speaker 3: this team to have staying power. And it's also two degree,
13:31
Speaker 3: some validation of the big picture view that they've taken,
13:35
Speaker 3: going back, you know, years ago to when the last
13:39
Speaker 3: championship corps was disassembled.
13:43
Speaker 1: Injuries aren't good, Patrick, I'm not going to suggest that that.
13:46
Speaker 2: You want anyone to get injured.
13:49
Speaker 1: It's not like ianhaps important showed him and Aga is
13:51
Speaker 1: incredibly important.
13:52
Speaker 2: Just losing Justine Steel for the season stings.
13:56
Speaker 1: But I think it's I think it's important to get
14:01
Speaker 1: guys like Kate Horton and Moises by a Stereos up
14:04
Speaker 1: in May rather than September or August. Maybe it wouldn't matter.
14:10
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe they'd be able to impact guys. Maybe you
14:13
Speaker 1: could make the argument that the league wouldn't have time
14:17
Speaker 1: to adjust to them. Maybe that's an argument that I'm
14:20
Speaker 1: I'm overlooking here. I think I think there's value in
14:23
Speaker 1: having them up now, getting this experience, Now see what
14:26
Speaker 1: you have, Now understand what you may need to go
14:30
Speaker 1: aggressively add at at the at the deadline. What what
14:36
Speaker 1: type of role could Kate Horton hold on this team?
14:38
Speaker 1: What kind of role could Moises by a Staios hold
14:40
Speaker 1: on this team? Are they October participants for this team?
14:44
Speaker 1: If they if they continue to play like they are
14:46
Speaker 1: and make the playoffs, it's you know, it gives it
14:51
Speaker 1: secures Ben The injuries unfortunately secure Ben Brown's spot in
14:57
Speaker 1: the rotation. Right, we don't even need to talk about that.
14:59
Speaker 1: I shouldn't s unfortunately secures it. Unfortunately the injuries happened,
15:03
Speaker 1: they secure that that spot in the rotation, uh for
15:07
Speaker 1: Ben Brown, and he has to show what he can
15:10
Speaker 1: do and and and be consistent and and he's kind
15:14
Speaker 1: of forced.
15:15
Speaker 2: To to do this.
15:17
Speaker 1: There's no there's no debating does Ben Brown belong? They
15:21
Speaker 1: don't have a choice. He has to pitch and he's
15:24
Speaker 1: done well. I'll give him credit. He's I feel like counsel.
15:28
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was a call out as
15:30
Speaker 1: much as you know, he just stated it flatly. We
15:34
Speaker 1: need better. And he's been better since then. And and
15:37
Speaker 1: you got to give him credit. He's he's pitched well
15:39
Speaker 1: and kept his team in games and and uh allowed
15:43
Speaker 1: them to get some wins. So uh, you got to
15:46
Speaker 1: give Ben Brown some love for that. I think he
15:49
Speaker 1: deserves it, uh, especially because those were that was there
15:52
Speaker 1: were some rough starts in there that could ding the confidence. Uh.
15:55
Speaker 2: And and maybe he's figuring some things out. Uh.
15:58
Speaker 1: You certainly want to see take steps forward. I think
16:01
Speaker 1: these young guys development. You need young guys to win
16:06
Speaker 1: to you need surprises to win that. That's kind of
16:10
Speaker 1: how big seasons happen. It's not always. It's not yes,
16:15
Speaker 1: you need Kyle Tucker, but you need Carson Kelly, and
16:21
Speaker 1: you need and you need you know, PCA emerging things
16:24
Speaker 1: like that. You can't just be the superstars that you
16:27
Speaker 1: already knew about.
16:29
Speaker 3: And I wouldn't. I don't know if there's a scenario
16:31
Speaker 3: in which Jed Hoyer would have traded Biosteros or Horton
16:37
Speaker 3: this summer sounds kind of unrealistic to me. But if
16:42
Speaker 3: these guys are on your major league roster, that very
16:46
Speaker 3: sim possibility drops close to zero. Like if Caid Horton
16:50
Speaker 3: is pitching every five or six days, if Moist is
16:54
Speaker 3: by Asteros is an everyday designated hater or sort of
17:01
Speaker 3: a part of this evolving catching situation, They're not getting traded.
17:06
Speaker 3: They're going to be playing, performing at Wrigley Field. And
17:13
Speaker 3: you know, I think you're right also in terms of
17:17
Speaker 3: accelerating some of this learning curve, because for as polished
17:24
Speaker 3: as Pete Crow Armstrong was in terms of his pedigree,
17:29
Speaker 3: he looked overmatched and overwhelmed when he was a September
17:33
Speaker 3: call up in twenty twenty three. Now he may have
17:36
Speaker 3: been put in an unfair situation. He's certainly not the
17:40
Speaker 3: first player to experience that, but it did not look
17:46
Speaker 3: great at a time when the Cubs, you know, were
17:48
Speaker 3: free falling. And if these guys can kind of establish
17:53
Speaker 3: themselves and just kind of get used to playing at
17:56
Speaker 3: this level and letting just their natural talents play, that
18:03
Speaker 3: could be a really big deal down the line.
18:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, one thing you said there, Patrick about guys being
18:11
Speaker 1: up in the big leagues likely not being traded. I
18:14
Speaker 1: maybe philosophies have changed across the game. I don't have
18:17
Speaker 1: data on this. I remember back in the THEO years,
18:21
Speaker 1: the years they were winning, talking to guys in that
18:24
Speaker 1: front office and like going over trade rumor stuff and
18:27
Speaker 1: how you attack the deadline. There was just a philosophy
18:32
Speaker 1: of I think there was some rumor going around whenever
18:36
Speaker 1: I was talking to someone and possibly trading someone on
18:40
Speaker 1: that major league roster to upgrade another spot. And the
18:44
Speaker 1: point was we're playing well, we're winning games.
18:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a.
18:49
Speaker 1: Weakness, but you cannot take away from a group that's
18:51
Speaker 1: playing well. It's really hard when you're a winning team,
18:55
Speaker 1: it's really hard to take away from the major league roster. Now,
18:58
Speaker 1: I mean, Theo's done. One of the most famous major
19:01
Speaker 1: league roster shakeups. But that was a team that was
19:04
Speaker 1: slumping and that needed a change. Trading No more Garcia
19:07
Speaker 1: power when you're playing. Well, we'll see, we'll see how
19:11
Speaker 1: things go, where what direction this goes. But those that's
19:14
Speaker 1: rare that you trade from your major league roster, unless
19:17
Speaker 1: you have this crazy surplus, or unless you need to
19:20
Speaker 1: shake things up because you're in a month long slump
19:22
Speaker 1: or something.
19:22
Speaker 2: And thinks, so you.
19:23
Speaker 1: See this huge weakness like THEO did in two thousand
19:27
Speaker 1: and four. On the defense that it's just rare, it's
19:30
Speaker 1: a good point that you're making there. I think let's
19:33
Speaker 1: take a quick break and then and then get back
19:36
Speaker 1: to some other under the radar players this season.
19:39
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Speaker 2: Patrick.
20:44
Speaker 1: I mentioned it before, it's impossible to have a good
20:48
Speaker 1: season without some surprises on the roster. This one has
20:52
Speaker 1: has guys that were we barely talk about. Ian Happ
20:55
Speaker 1: was one we mentioned him. He's kind of a key
20:58
Speaker 1: to I feel like, hey, he sets things off at
21:01
Speaker 1: the top. I was shocked to see how low a
21:04
Speaker 1: strikeout rate is. It's below twenty percent. When you're below
21:07
Speaker 1: twenty percent and you're walking at the rate that he does,
21:09
Speaker 1: he's not hitting for power it's not because he's not.
21:12
Speaker 2: Hitting the ball hard.
21:13
Speaker 1: I think there's a little bit of bad luck in there.
21:14
Speaker 1: We'll see how he is when he comes back from
21:16
Speaker 1: the IL. I think you wrote about another guy.
21:21
Speaker 2: I wrote about him.
21:22
Speaker 1: Great again last night, Colin Ray. He's He's a shocker
21:27
Speaker 1: for me. I did not expect him to be this good.
21:30
Speaker 1: I liked the signing in the sense that you always
21:33
Speaker 1: need depth, you need veterans, you need a guy like
21:36
Speaker 1: Colin Ray to kind of step up in random moments.
21:41
Speaker 2: This good.
21:42
Speaker 1: I did not see it coming. I did not expect
21:45
Speaker 1: to do something er Ray. Whatever he is in six
21:47
Speaker 1: starts in, it's been impressive. And it's not like it's
21:50
Speaker 1: smoking mirrors. It doesn't feel like that he's limiting walks,
21:53
Speaker 1: he's missing barrels, and he's striking guys out too. It's
21:56
Speaker 1: not like it's just you know, a bunch of weak
21:58
Speaker 1: balls in play or a lot of babbit luck.
22:01
Speaker 2: Here.
22:03
Speaker 3: We can get into the backstory in a minute, but
22:05
Speaker 3: you know, can you explain to our listeners a couple
22:09
Speaker 3: of the like subtle tweaks that have happened going back
22:13
Speaker 3: to say, last summer that begin to explain why this
22:17
Speaker 3: is happening and with Ray and why maybe it's sustainable
22:21
Speaker 3: and not just a total fluke.
22:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was interesting.
22:25
Speaker 1: He's a he's a very soft spoken guy, uh but
22:29
Speaker 1: but friendly and and and loves to get into the details.
22:34
Speaker 1: Colin said that last year Wade Miley, he Colin was
22:38
Speaker 1: with the Brewers obviously last year, so was Wade Miley,
22:40
Speaker 1: former cub one of those guys. He was with the
22:42
Speaker 1: Cubs first season. He was hurt pretty much that entire season, right,
22:46
Speaker 1: or or a lot of it.
22:48
Speaker 3: He has, He's had a lot of time on his hands.
22:51
Speaker 3: But yeah, is like, you know, beloved as like a
22:57
Speaker 3: clubhouse guy, always doing the like, you know, kind of
23:00
Speaker 3: the John Lester style of you know, whether it's bottles
23:04
Speaker 3: of champagne or sort of like marking milestones in players careers,
23:09
Speaker 3: sharing advice to younger guys and being really like locked
23:12
Speaker 3: in in the dugout watching every single pitch.
23:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he was.
23:16
Speaker 1: He was actually in Arizona, Okay, when they played the
23:20
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks and he came to the game it was and
23:23
Speaker 1: he was up in the press box at one point
23:25
Speaker 1: saying all of us, yeah, yeah, yeah, just wild, really
23:29
Speaker 1: nice guy and funny and obviously he gave.
23:33
Speaker 2: So he gave Colin Ray some advice.
23:34
Speaker 1: He said, you know, maybe try being on the first
23:37
Speaker 1: base side of the rubber. Colin didn't do it in
23:40
Speaker 1: the middle of the season. He was having a good
23:42
Speaker 1: season for most of twenty twenty four. Awful September. It
23:47
Speaker 1: was just like everything was good up until September for him.
23:51
Speaker 1: Prompted him over the winter to try and move over
23:54
Speaker 1: to the first base side of the rubber. What it
23:55
Speaker 1: did for him, in his opinion, he wasn't trying as hard.
23:58
Speaker 1: He was staying closed, to sayctally with his friend's shoulder.
24:01
Speaker 1: He wasn't trying to get to the inside to lefties
24:06
Speaker 1: or anything glove side. He didn't feel like he had
24:08
Speaker 1: to open up and that in his opinion, so he
24:11
Speaker 1: told me it gave his fastball more life. So there's
24:14
Speaker 1: a difference between life and ride. Ride is something we
24:17
Speaker 1: can measure now. It's it's it has to do with
24:20
Speaker 1: spin and vertical approach, angle, different things like that can
24:25
Speaker 1: give your pitches that allows them to stay up in
24:29
Speaker 1: the zone and it almost looks like they're rising.
24:32
Speaker 2: It's not.
24:33
Speaker 1: It's just the illusion of that they're not. It's not
24:35
Speaker 1: dropping as much as you'd expect. This is more about deception.
24:39
Speaker 1: He's staying closed. The ball comes up on the ball,
24:42
Speaker 1: I mean the ball comes up on the hitter a
24:44
Speaker 1: little quicker, seems to right. They can't pick it up
24:47
Speaker 1: as early. It's a split second thing, but it matters.
24:49
Speaker 1: That's what hitting and pitching. It's all about timing right,
24:51
Speaker 1: and you're slightly throwing off their timing. And and his
24:55
Speaker 1: forcing fastball is incredibly valuable. It was he had a
24:59
Speaker 1: rough out rough we gave up like three or four runs.
25:04
Speaker 1: Was it against the Giants? It was against the Giants
25:09
Speaker 1: They hit the forcing fastball. So it's not as it
25:12
Speaker 1: was like a top five forcing fastball in baseball, one
25:16
Speaker 1: of the best four seamers. Now it's like top twenty.
25:18
Speaker 1: But he's never he's using it over fifty percent of
25:22
Speaker 1: the time, when he'd never used it over thirty percent
25:25
Speaker 1: of the time. It's always been a good pitch for him.
25:29
Speaker 1: Now it's even better, and he's using it a lot more,
25:32
Speaker 1: and it's not losing value, it's gaining value. The pitching
25:37
Speaker 1: coaches have encouraged him to do this. He's bought in
25:41
Speaker 1: and now he's seeing the results. So he's confident. It's
25:44
Speaker 1: turned into a pretty big situation for him in the
25:47
Speaker 1: sense that he's using this pitch that he never really
25:51
Speaker 1: leaned on, and it's by far his most valuable and
25:56
Speaker 1: successful pitch.
25:59
Speaker 3: It's fun to how Craig Counsel reaches out to Colin
26:04
Speaker 3: Ray before he signs to essentially preview the worst case
26:08
Speaker 3: scenario for Ray in Chicago. Now, they did catch up
26:13
Speaker 3: a little bit on family. They know each other, you know,
26:16
Speaker 3: from their time together in Milwaukee, and Council did also stress,
26:22
Speaker 3: like the atmosphere in Wrigleyville, how it's electric every night
26:27
Speaker 3: without feeling overwhelming.
26:29
Speaker 2: You know.
26:29
Speaker 3: Ray had grown up in Iowa and come to Wrigley
26:32
Speaker 3: Field as a kid, and he had pitched briefly here
26:36
Speaker 3: during the twenty twenty pandemic season when there was no
26:40
Speaker 3: fans in the stand. So it wasn't all just doom
26:43
Speaker 3: and gloom from mister Council. But I thought it was
26:48
Speaker 3: pretty revealing of just how Council operates, how pitchers sort
26:52
Speaker 3: of trust him, and it came from this place of
26:55
Speaker 3: look like, there's a likelihood you're starting this season in
26:58
Speaker 3: the bullpen, but you're probably going to make a lot
27:02
Speaker 3: of starts for us, and you know, we think you
27:06
Speaker 3: can be a really big part of this team. And
27:09
Speaker 3: now that's just kind of counsel style in general. Anyone
27:13
Speaker 3: who watches him on TV during those press conferences or
27:17
Speaker 3: knows that. But Ray appreciates that blunt honesty. He had
27:24
Speaker 3: said to him in spring training one year with the Brewers, like,
27:28
Speaker 3: just shoot me straight. You know, I understand that you
27:32
Speaker 3: have to make moves. It's not always going to be fair,
27:35
Speaker 3: but just don't tell me what I want to hear.
27:37
Speaker 3: You know, we're all grown men.
27:39
Speaker 2: Here was the quote from Ray.
27:41
Speaker 3: And so that establishes a baseline so that when the
27:46
Speaker 3: Cubs pick Ben Brown to be in their season oping rotation,
27:49
Speaker 3: Ray's not a disgruntled player. And when Justin Steele goes down,
27:55
Speaker 3: Ray's walking through the clubhouse. Here's his name called you,
28:00
Speaker 3: pokes his head into Counsel's office and he's like, you're
28:04
Speaker 3: going Sunday, you know, against the Dodgers on Sunday night
28:07
Speaker 3: baseball at Dodger Stadium. And he pitched fantastically during that game.
28:13
Speaker 3: So I think it Ray is an example of kind
28:19
Speaker 3: of the type of player they brought in. And there's
28:22
Speaker 3: been different ways to build out this roster. But you know,
28:25
Speaker 3: it's a hot I've been talking to these guys. There's
28:27
Speaker 3: a lot of guys who've been around, been in other places.
28:30
Speaker 3: They understand the business, They understand kind of what it
28:35
Speaker 3: takes to be successful over the course of a long season.
28:39
Speaker 3: And I think you were the one who told me, like, look,
28:42
Speaker 3: Ray's a good talker once you get him going, and
28:45
Speaker 3: he was. I'm sure if you watch some of the
28:47
Speaker 3: post game start press conferences, he's a little more reserved.
28:57
Speaker 3: It was just very a very thoughtful guy who has
29:00
Speaker 3: great perspective after bouncing around for a while, pitching in Japan,
29:04
Speaker 3: pitching on some really good teams in Milwaukee. And I
29:10
Speaker 3: do think that has been a part, as you wrote,
29:16
Speaker 3: to this really strong start to the season. It is
29:19
Speaker 3: the experience, it is the buy in. It is just
29:22
Speaker 3: kind of the organization of how this thing is being
29:25
Speaker 3: put together.
29:28
Speaker 1: Real quickly before we go just one under the radar names,
29:33
Speaker 1: I think I can look at the bullpen and name
29:35
Speaker 1: a few. Drew Pomerantz almost striking out thirty percent of
29:40
Speaker 1: the batters he's faced so far, under eight percent, walk grate,
29:44
Speaker 1: just not giving up any runs. He's been huge. I've
29:49
Speaker 1: said it on the podcast. I am really surprised at
29:52
Speaker 1: how good he looks. I did not expect it. Caleb
29:55
Speaker 1: thielbar has been so key. He looked awful the first
29:58
Speaker 1: two weeks and he has been great rate since. Uh.
30:02
Speaker 1: Daniel Palencia just I mean finally figuring it out. This
30:07
Speaker 1: is why you don't give up with guys with stuff.
30:10
Speaker 1: But the biggest name to me, I dug in on
30:13
Speaker 1: his numbers, I and I and I came away thinking,
30:18
Speaker 1: is Brad Keller the.
30:19
Speaker 2: Best pitcher on this team?
30:22
Speaker 1: He has he has the highest ground ball rate, he
30:24
Speaker 1: has the highest UH strikeout rate is a top bottom
30:29
Speaker 1: five and walk rate. Missus Barrels does not give up
30:32
Speaker 1: hard hits.
30:33
Speaker 2: Uh.
30:34
Speaker 1: You want to you want an opener, you want to
30:36
Speaker 1: set up man, you want two innings, you want a
30:39
Speaker 1: dirty inning. Uh.
30:41
Speaker 2: He is doing.
30:43
Speaker 1: Everything for this team. He had one bad outing and
30:46
Speaker 1: it was spurred by some balls that found a hole
30:48
Speaker 1: when under a glove.
30:50
Speaker 3: Uh.
30:51
Speaker 1: He is incredibly impressive and and the type of reliever
30:56
Speaker 1: that my guess is Council just loves to have because
31:00
Speaker 1: he'll just go out there and do whatever. I didn't
31:02
Speaker 1: even mention he's throwing ninety nine one hundred. Now this
31:06
Speaker 1: is I mean, I I thought it looked good in
31:11
Speaker 1: the spring. You never know, things can look good in
31:14
Speaker 1: the spring and completely fall apart in that first bit
31:17
Speaker 1: real outing. He has been better than one could imagine
31:23
Speaker 1: one could have hoped. That's a hell of a signing.
31:26
Speaker 1: That's a hell of a fine And I think he's
31:28
Speaker 1: like the key to that bullpen's success if the bullpen
31:31
Speaker 1: is going to really stabilize. I think I think Porter
31:34
Speaker 1: Hodge is a big piece right now where you want
31:36
Speaker 1: him to get back to, like, you know, just kind
31:38
Speaker 1: of settle back in. I'm curious to see when his
31:40
Speaker 1: next outing is. But other than that, I really like
31:43
Speaker 1: a lot of these pictures. All of a sudden, all
31:46
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm just saying, like I like this guy.
31:48
Speaker 2: I don't. I mean, we'll see.
31:50
Speaker 1: You have to be consistent, you have to avoid walks.
31:53
Speaker 1: But Keller's the name that for me, that just stands
31:56
Speaker 1: out what he's been a stud.
31:59
Speaker 3: Without a doubt, and this is the time to sort
32:01
Speaker 3: of get right in the bullpen, widening the circle of trust.
32:08
Speaker 3: Also maybe not have to you know, lean as hard
32:12
Speaker 3: on certain pitchers. Monday Night began a stretch of twenty
32:17
Speaker 3: one consecutive games against teams that currently have a losing record,
32:23
Speaker 3: and we're talking about, you know, some historically bad teams
32:30
Speaker 3: potentially in you know, the White Sox coming off you know,
32:35
Speaker 3: worst season ever, the Rockies, who I think are on
32:39
Speaker 3: pace to be even worse than last year's White Act,
32:43
Speaker 3: which is just hard to believe. Two series against the
32:48
Speaker 3: Marlins who have no hopes of contending, and interesting matchups
32:54
Speaker 3: against the Reds, and you know, I think everyone's kind
32:58
Speaker 3: of intrigued by what the Nationals are building in DC,
33:02
Speaker 3: but they're not quite there yet, so comes of weathered
33:06
Speaker 3: a lot of stuff there. We're talking a lot about
33:09
Speaker 3: the Colin Rays and the brad Kellers, which you know
33:14
Speaker 3: bodes well, and yeah, it's kind of time to see
33:17
Speaker 3: see what they got, you know, from Biasteros to Horton
33:20
Speaker 3: to some of these newer guys that are getting to
33:22
Speaker 3: learn about.
33:23
Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, this is an important stretch. Weathering the tough
33:28
Speaker 1: stretch was obviously important and impressed it. Frankly, Now it's
33:34
Speaker 1: you know, you can't just be okay, you have to
33:37
Speaker 1: stand out. This is where you know, you clean clean up.
33:40
Speaker 1: It doesn't it may not tell us what type of
33:43
Speaker 1: team they are in the sense like, oh, they can
33:46
Speaker 1: win in October. But this is how you say, Okay,
33:49
Speaker 1: they're they're for real, They're they're doing Yeah, this is
33:51
Speaker 1: how you get to October. That what they did in
33:54
Speaker 1: the first month at plus was like, oh, yeah, hey,
33:57
Speaker 1: they can compete with anybody. Now it's now it's beat
34:00
Speaker 1: the crap out of these teams. You know, win win
34:02
Speaker 1: two thirds of these games. Uh, maybe more and and
34:06
Speaker 1: just and and start running away with the division or
34:09
Speaker 1: making it clear that hey we're aggressive buyers and we're
34:13
Speaker 1: going to the postseason. Uh, that's that's the type of
34:16
Speaker 1: run you want to see. Uh. You hope they stay
34:19
Speaker 1: relatively healthy because the injuries are are starting to pile
34:24
Speaker 1: up in a sense, not not devastating, but it's it's
34:27
Speaker 1: you don't want to see much more happen, so you
34:30
Speaker 1: want to avoid that.
34:31
Speaker 2: Let's see what these kids are doing.
34:33
Speaker 1: Kate Horton Moys's by asteris looking forward to that debut
34:36
Speaker 1: White Sox or Marlins and then White Sox h the
34:40
Speaker 1: rest of this week. It should it should be a
34:42
Speaker 1: week where the Cubs stack up some victories.
34:44
Speaker 2: We'll see how they do. Patrick, thanks so much for
34:47
Speaker 2: listening everyone.
34:48
Speaker 1: This is Northside Territory, Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast.
34:51
Speaker 2: Make sure to rate, review and subscribe. Subscribe to our
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Speaker 2: YouTube channel and subscribe to The Athletic or Patrick and
34:57
Speaker 2: I are on top of all things cubs. Thanks every everyone.
35:00
Speaker 1: Take care the name
35:12
Speaker 4: Name will you